Jem Muldoon has decided that it is time to speak and act. It is time to do what is right, not what is expedient. She wrote to tell me she has become an activist for education and will not follow orders that conflict with her knowledge and ethics. Hem is trying to find meaning and purpose at a time when public policy requires educators to do what they know is wrong.

She says, we are the ones we have been waiting for.

So she started a blog.

Here she explains how computer adaptive testing conflicts with genuine learning and is not even good testing. The kids quickly figure out how to game the system and turn it into a test of their ability to outwit the program. And here is no feedback about what they need to know.

As a Literacy Coach in MCPS in 2006, I administered the MAP-R test to all of our 9th and 10th graders three times a year. Most just sat and took it. They had seen this test in middle school. But I will never forget the one boy who simply rested his forehead on the keypad. I walked over to help and he said, “I’m stupid. I know I am stupid and this test is going to prove it.”

I just read this line from Jem Muldoon blog: “For struggling students, this reinforces the fact that they will likely get a “bad grade”, further digging the hole of hopelessness.”